I-No
'''I-No (イノ, Ino) is one of the main characters in the ''Guilty Gear'' series, making her first appearance as a boss of the third game, Guilty Gear XX; unlike bosses in previous games, she is freely playable from the start. She is a servant of That Man. Very little is known about her; in fact, her profile in Guilty Gear XX consists entirely of "UNKNOWN!!" repeated several times over. Information given thus far is also somewhat unclear as to the nature and origin of her hat, which resembles a witch's hat and seems to be animate. She also seems to derive pleasure from tormenting other characters, especially Dizzy. In the story of Revelator, it was revealed I-no is a human who is also a Magical Foci. This occurred when the Backyard cast off part of its body and put it into her. Character Design I-No has black hair in a bob cut, and has red lips and a mole on her right cheek. I-no wears a red witch hat that has a skull face on it. She wears black leather choker around her neck with a gold ring that is connected to her shoulderless red jacket that she can easily take off and put on. She has a red mini skirt and thigh high heel boots with black panties underneath as seen during some of her attacks. Despite having green eyes in her artworks, her profiles state that her eyes change color "depending on the angle", and are said to be multi-colored. This was not shown in-game until Xrd in which her eyes shift color constantly. Gallery [[I-No/Image Gallery|'I-No's Image Gallery']] Personality I-No is a sadistic and manipulative woman who seems to act without conscience. Thus, she has no qualms about hurting other people (physically or mentally). She is dedicated — or so the audience is led to believe — to That Man's goals and ideals, to the point where she altered reality at least once to make his objectives possible, though it is never entirely made clear what the former are. She is somewhat crude in how she speaks to others, as she is always either cursing, insulting her opponents, or making sexually charged comments, usually using musical references as double entendres. She is shown to have a masochistic side when her opponents attacks her in erotic ways. It is due to her chaotic nature, she tends to actually deter most of That Man's goals albeit in-denial; however, it is still hinted that he keeps her around regardless due to the fact that she tends to mindlessly cause chaos if left unchecked. Story Background UNKNOWN!! Guilty Gear XX She spends most of her Story Mode manipulating the various cast members against each other. She is the one who hands out the fake bounty lists, which consist entirely of other cast members, to Jam and Bridget. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus To get her out of misbehaving, That Man uses Anji Mito to trick and arrest her, eventually succeeding. In the ending where she fights Sol, she's captured by That Man and Raven, who evidently intend to punish her. I-No protests that she only wanted to remove those who stood in her boss' way, but That Man proclaims that they're actually beneficial to what he has in mind for the world. In her other, less likely endings, she fights and defeats Dizzy and May, either subsequently becoming overwhelmed by Dizzy's power, or kidnapping May with the apparent intentions of bringing her to That Man. Also, in her second ending, I-No is defeated at the hands of a malicious Baiken and is stabbed repeatedly, thus leading to her death. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-'' Arcade Mode I-No wants to kill Sol once again in order to change once and for all the always result of a miserable gray world, making use of his hidden time and space split control powers to teleport Sol in his present era to do it so, but failing in the attempt she later decides to confront Ramlethal Valentine and realizes she was unable to kill her this time, but thereby discovers the big meaning of this time result. She then returns to the future stating the presence of That Man who was present in the "Integrate Point" thanks to her that the world at last has finally start to move towards a changing future, a new future. But suddenly, Axl Low appears trapped once again in his timelines shippings, the two then talk and I-No affirms it's thanks to her special power of shift time-space control that Axl was attracted and summoned to the same era as she was, Babylon 5 years in the future on the current timeline (although, it seems as he himself states that Axl was already present in this era in some point). Story Mode I-No is seen in a brief time coming alongside Axl so that he can bring his message to That Man, since even if she wanted to do so by herself, only the receiver is able to hear the delivered message (interestingly enough, we see a man more friendly than the way he's shown in XX, probably because she actually helped to That Man's true purposes this time around). ''Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-'' Episode Mode Her Episode starts with a brief introduction, I-No coming from a distant future tried many times to change the same fate the past had in store, and failed to do so regardless of her many attempts. This all changed however, when in one of her meddlings in the past I-No was able to meet with That Man (aka Asuka R. Kreutz) for the first time (see Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Side Black for further information) and saw of him as an interesting individual that perhaps was the key she needed in order to get the "tomorrow" she wanted. I-No then proceeds to wake up Jack-O' from her slumber, but because it was still too early she was still unstable and eventually left the place immediately after disobeying I-No's orders, she then lets Raven know what happened and asks him to help chase after her. While searching for her, she encounters Axl again and begs to her once more to send him back to his own timeline, I-No however makes clear that she's actually unable to do so, this is because his own timeline along with her own don't exist anymore in the records of this world, they are what she calls by that definition vagabonds, since they don't have neither past or future. Later, Jack-O' appears before them and I-No then tries to get her back. But before that Jack-O' reveals to her what she really is. Mankind's desires and hopes during the darkest hour of the Crusades concentrated and formed a single entity inside the Backyard. In order to protect itself from further corruption, the Backyard cast off part of its body, and planted it on a human woman. That woman is I-No. Story Mode I-No appears again in a brief time somewhere in the Backyard along with Axl after learning about his power, she asks him if he has decided already how he'll use his power, but in response he says to her that the reason why he came is because he's afraid of his own power, with I-No however being unable to understand the point of him being afraid. Later at the end, she appears again along with Raven and Asuka talking to Sol, and while she doesn't mention anything, she's seen to be grinning at the end of the conversation. Gameplay Arguably one of the hardest characters to use, I-No's gameplay is more advanced, focusing on placing relentless pressure on the opponent while retaining defense. I-No's attacks have a good offensive potential and appear almost instantly. I-No's moveset has rather unique properties; when I-No dashes, unlike other characters, she floats above the ground, as if she was jumping. Thus, she can use her aerial moves without actually being in the air. '''Sultry Performance' is an aerial move that can attack horizontally or diagonally, and can be combined with I-No's hover dash, becoming one of the most damaging aerial moves if charged fully. All of I-No's Overdrives have a very limited range; unless the opponent is at melee distance, the chances of missing are high. Ultimate Fortissimo is hard to pull off; that, combined with the fact that it is an aerial move makes it very likely to miss. However, it is I-No's most damaging attack, and makes an excellent finisher with a zero cast delay. In EX Mode, her unique hover dash has become a command dash, making it harder for the player to access her aerial combos. But she gains the advantage of being able to disrupt opponent's aerial moves with moves like Chemical Love Height. In Gold Mode, she becomes roughly three times as fast, making her even harder to control due to how increased her mobility is. She also possesses regenerating health as well as infinite Tension. This is the form she takes when fought as the game's final boss. As a boss, she also has an exclusive Overdrive called Megalomania where she becomes fully invincible as the background turns pitch-black, and warning signs appear as she sprouts wings with loudspeakers on them. The formation of the warning symbols differ, but after about 3 seconds of inactivity provided she doesn't False Roman Cancel to change the trajectory suddenly, I-no will fire a stream of unblockable heart orbs that can deal up to 70% of a character's health, as well as a considerable amount of chip damage if the opponent does not use Faultless Defense. This Overdrive actually utilizes I-no's Burst Gauge, rather than her Tension Gauge, as evidenced by the fact that as of SLASH, it is usable in her EX mode. Command List I-No's Command List}} Powers & Abilities According to Drama CD Side Black, I-No has the ability to time travel. However, she seldom does this as, according to herself, it is difficult to do. She traveled back in time in order to fulfill the ideals of That Man and saved Ky's life, thus changing the future into one where the humans won the war against the Gears, since Ky's death would have meant the defeat of the Holy Order. In I-No's timeline, the humans were on the verge of defeat from the Gears led by Dizzy. This ability is referenced in Guilty Gear XX: Slash and Accent Core, whereas after being defeated, I-No opens up a time portal to escape, and depending on the player's actions, their character might be sucked into the portal as well, taking them into the past timeline and fight Order-Sol. I-No also uses electric guitar named "Marlene" for both magical and physical attacks, strumming it to produce damaging sound waves or slamming it to her opponents. She also uses it for flight as she rides it when she dashes in the air. She also has the ability to alter and devour memories. It is later revealed that as the humanoid Magical Focus born from the desperate wishes of humanity, she may possess other abilities that can potentially affect reality itself. It is also suggested that she has yet to reveal her full power. Musical Themes * Kagematsuri (Shadow Festival) - Guilty Gear XX * The Midnight Carnival (Boss) - Guilty Gear XX * Blacklight Babe - Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean OST * Sheep Will Sleep (If You Become Fatigued) - Guilty Gear Isuka * Dirty Drive - Guilty Gear Xrd Character Quotes See: [[I-No/Quotes|'I-No Quotes']] References and Allusions *I-No's name may be a reference to Brian Eno, a musician/songwriter famous for working with Glam Rock stars like David Bowie, or "eye no", a Prince song released in 1988. The symbol on her guitar looking similar to Prince's symbol. Prince was also known to play the same guitar. *In the Arena stage in Xrd, I-No is described as Crimson Minstrel, which is probably a reference of X Japan's song, Kurenai. *I-No's design is speculated to be influenced by Japanese musician Shiina Ringo, as I-No sports a hairstyle Shiina wore during her early days, a mole in the exact same facial location (which she later had removed), the same guitar, the same height and birthday. *One of her victory animations has her playing part of a solo from these songs: **Metallica's "One". **Van Halen's "Eruption". **Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley". **Heaven's Gate's "Surrender" **Additionally, this solo is remarkably similar to a portion of Street Fighter character Adon's theme in the Street Fighter 4 series. *I-No uses a Duesenberg Starplayer II Guitar. *Her guitar Marlene is named after German-American actress Marlene Dietrich. I-No's guitar is named Marlene, while Shiina Ringo's guitar is named Dietrich. *Her move Chemical Love may reference the musical band "My Chemical Romance". *Her original Instant Kill, Last Will and Testament, may be named after the band, Testament. *Likewise, her infamous Megalomania attack used by her Boss version (and used as her IK in Xrd), may be named after the first album of the Russian metal band, Aria. Trivia *Apart from sharing the same voice actress, Tara Platt, I-No bears resemblance to Anna Williams from the Tekken franchise. *Even though she time travels, I-No doesn't seem to encounter her past self, unlike Axl and Sol. *In the story mode of Revelator, I-No is featured wearing a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses and a short jacket, which is similar to the ensemble she wore in her first chronological appearance in Guilty Gear X: Lightning the Argent. *I-no is one of four characters (along with Sol, Dizzy, and Baiken) that will be introduced in the mobile RPG Epic Seven.http://www.j1studios.com/guilty-gear-xrd-characters-to-appear-in-epic-seven/ External Links *Dustloop Forums - I-No Character Specific Strategy (Advanced Guide) *Mizuumi's GG Wiki - I-No References Navigation Category:Guilty Gear Characters Category:Humans Category:Females Category:Playable Characters Category:Time Travelers Category:Bosses Category:Villains Category:Guilty Gear Xrd Characters